:h options.txt

options.txt For Vim version 6.4. Last change: 2014 Nov 05RG_SO_FILES, LINK

ARGS_SO,

VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar

Options optionsLINK

1. Setting options set-option

2. Automatically setting options auto-setting

3. Options summary option-summary

For an overview of options see help.txt option-list.

Vim has a number of internal variables and switches which can be set to

achieve special effects. These options come in three forms:

boolean can only be on or off boolean toggleLINK

number has a numeric value

string has a string value

==============================================================================

1. Setting options set-option E764LINK

:se :setLINK

:se[t] Show all options that differ from their default value.

:se[t] all Show all but terminal options.

:se[t] termcap Show all terminal options. Note that in the GUI the

key codes are not shown, because they are generated

internally and can't be changed. Changing the terminal

codes in the GUI is not useful either...

E518 E519LINK

:se[t] {option}? Show value of {option}.

:se[t] {option} Toggle option: set, switch it on.

Number option: show value.

String option: show value.

:se[t] no{option} Toggle option: Reset, switch it off.

:set-! :set-invLINK

:se[t] {option}! or

:se[t] inv{option} Toggle option: Invert value. {not in Vi}

:set-default :set-& :set-&vi :set-&vimLINK

:se[t] {option}& Reset option to its default value. May depend on the

current value of 'compatible'. {not in Vi}

:se[t] {option}&vi Reset option to its Vi default value. {not in Vi}

:se[t] {option}&vim Reset option to its Vim default value. {not in Vi}

:se[t] all& Set all options, except terminal options, to their

default value. The values of 'term', 'lines' and

'columns' are not changed. {not in Vi}

:set-args E487 E521LINK

:se[t] {option}={value} or

:se[t] {option}:{value}

Set string or number option to {value}.

For numeric options the value can be given in decimal,

hex (preceded with 0x) or octal (preceded with '0').

The old value can be inserted by typing 'wildchar' (by

default this is a <Tab> or CTRL-E if 'compatible' is

set). See cmdline-completion.

White space between {option} and '=' is allowed and

will be ignored. White space between '=' and {value}

is not allowed.

See option-backslash for using white space and

backslashes in {value}.

:se[t] {option}+={value} :set+=LINK

Add the {value} to a number option, or append the

{value} to a string option. When the option is a

comma separated list, a comma is added, unless the

value was empty.

If the option is a list of flags, superfluous flags

are removed. When adding a flag that was already

present the option value doesn't change.

Also see :set-args above.

{not in Vi}

:se[t] {option}^={value} :set^=LINK

Multiply the {value} to a number option, or prepend

the {value} to a string option. When the option is a

comma separated list, a comma is added, unless the

value was empty.

Also see :set-args above.

{not in Vi}

:se[t] {option}-={value} :set-=LINK

Subtract the {value} from a number option, or remove

the {value} from a string option, if it is there.

If the {value} is not found in a string option, there

is no error or warning. When the option is a comma

separated list, a comma is deleted, unless the option

becomes empty.

When the option is a list of flags, {value} must be

exactly as they appear in the option. Remove flags

one by one to avoid problems.

Also see :set-args above.

{not in Vi}

The {option} arguments to ":set" may be repeated. For example:

:set ai nosi sw=3 ts=3

If you make an error in one of the arguments, an error message will be given

and the following arguments will be ignored.

:set-verboseLINK

When 'verbose' is non-zero, displaying an option value will also tell where it

was last set. Example:

:verbose set shiftwidth cindent?

shiftwidth=4

Last set from modeline

cindent

Last set from /usr/local/share/vim/vim60/ftplugin/c.vim

This is only done when specific option values are requested, not for ":verbose

set all" or ":verbose set" without an argument.

When the option was set by hand there is no "Last set" message.

When the option was set while executing a function, user command or

autocommand, the script in which it was defined is reported.

Note that an option may also have been set as a side effect of setting

'compatible'.

A few special texts:

Last set from modeline

Option was set in a modeline.

Last set from --cmd argument

Option was set with command line argument --cmd or +.

Last set from -c argument

Option was set with command line argument -c, +, -S or

-q.

Last set from environment variable

Option was set from an environment variable, $VIMINIT,

$GVIMINIT or $EXINIT.

Last set from error handler

Option was cleared when evaluating it resulted in an error.

{not available when compiled without the +eval feature}

:set-termcap E522LINK

For {option} the form "t_xx" may be used to set a terminal option. This will

override the value from the termcap. You can then use it in a mapping. If

the "xx" part contains special characters, use the <t_xx> form:

:set <t_#4>=^[Ot

This can also be used to translate a special code for a normal key. For

example, if Alt-b produces <Esc>b, use this:

:set <M-b>=^[b

(the ^[ is a real <Esc> here, use CTRL-V <Esc> to enter it)

The advantage over a mapping is that it works in all situations.

You can define any key codes, e.g.:

:set t_xy=^[foo;

There is no warning for using a name that isn't recognized. You can map these

codes as you like:

:map <t_xy> something

E846LINK

When a key code is not set, it's like it does not exist. Trying to get its

value will result in an error:

:set t_kb=

:set t_kb

E846: Key code not set: t_kb

The t_xx options cannot be set from a modeline or in the sandbox, for

security reasons.

The listing from ":set" looks different from Vi. Long string options are put

at the end of the list. The number of options is quite large. The output of

"set all" probably does not fit on the screen, causing Vim to give the

more-prompt.

option-backslashLINK

To include white space in a string option value it has to be preceded with a

backslash. To include a backslash you have to use two. Effectively this

means that the number of backslashes in an option value is halved (rounded

down).

A few examples:

:set tags=tags\ /usr/tags results in "tags /usr/tags"

:set tags=tags\\,file results in "tags\,file"

:set tags=tags\\\ file results in "tags\ file"

The "|" character separates a ":set" command from a following command. To

include the "|" in the option value, use "\|" instead. This example sets the

'titlestring' option to "hi|there":

:set titlestring=hi\|there

This sets the 'titlestring' option to "hi" and 'iconstring' to "there":

:set titlestring=hi|set iconstring=there

Similarly, the double quote character starts a comment. To include the '"' in

the option value, use '\"' instead. This example sets the 'titlestring'

option to 'hi "there"':

:set titlestring=hi\ \"there\"

For MS-DOS and WIN32 backslashes in file names are mostly not removed. More

precise: For options that expect a file name (those where environment

variables are expanded) a backslash before a normal file name character is not

removed. But a backslash before a special character (space, backslash, comma,

etc.) is used like explained above.

There is one special situation, when the value starts with "\\":

:set dir=\\machine\path results in "\\machine\path"

:set dir=\\\\machine\\path results in "\\machine\path"

:set dir=\\path\\file results in "\\path\file" (wrong!)

For the first one the start is kept, but for the second one the backslashes

are halved. This makes sure it works both when you expect backslashes to be

halved and when you expect the backslashes to be kept. The third gives a

result which is probably not what you want. Avoid it.

add-option-flags remove-option-flagsLINK

E539 E550 E551 E552LINK

Some options are a list of flags. When you want to add a flag to such an

option, without changing the existing ones, you can do it like this:

:set guioptions+=a

Remove a flag from an option like this:

:set guioptions-=a

This removes the 'a' flag from 'guioptions'.

Note that you should add or remove one flag at a time. If 'guioptions' has

the value "ab", using "set guioptions-=ba" won't work, because the string "ba"

doesn't appear.

:set_env expand-env expand-environment-varLINK

Environment variables in specific string options will be expanded. If the

environment variable exists the '$' and the following environment variable

name is replaced with its value. If it does not exist the '$' and the name

are not modified. Any non-id character (not a letter, digit or '_') may

follow the environment variable name. That character and what follows is

appended to the value of the environment variable. Examples:

:set term=$TERM.new

:set path=/usr/$INCLUDE,$HOME/include,.

When adding or removing a string from an option with ":set opt-=val" or ":set

opt+=val" the expansion is done before the adding or removing.

Handling of local options local-optionsLINK

Some of the options only apply to a window or buffer. Each window or buffer

has its own copy of this option, thus can each have their own value. This

allows you to set 'list' in one window but not in another. And set

'shiftwidth' to 3 in one buffer and 4 in another.

The following explains what happens to these local options in specific

situations. You don't really need to know all of this, since Vim mostly uses

the option values you would expect. Unfortunately, doing what the user

expects is a bit complicated...

When splitting a window, the local options are copied to the new window. Thus

right after the split the contents of the two windows look the same.

When editing a new buffer, its local option values must be initialized. Since

the local options of the current buffer might be specifically for that buffer,

these are not used. Instead, for each buffer-local option there also is a

global value, which is used for new buffers. With ":set" both the local and

global value is changed. With "setlocal" only the local value is changed,

thus this value is not used when editing a new buffer.

When editing a buffer that has been edited before, the last used window

options are used again. If this buffer has been edited in this window, the

values from back then are used. Otherwise the values from the window where

the buffer was edited last are used.

It's possible to set a local window option specifically for a type of buffer.

When you edit another buffer in the same window, you don't want to keep

using these local window options. Therefore Vim keeps a global value of the

local window options, which is used when editing another buffer. Each window

has its own copy of these values. Thus these are local to the window, but

global to all buffers in the window. With this you can do:

:e one

:set list

:e two

Now the 'list' option will also be set in "two", since with the ":set list"

command you have also set the global value.

:set nolist

:e one

:setlocal list

:e two

Now the 'list' option is not set, because ":set nolist" resets the global

value, ":setlocal list" only changes the local value and ":e two" gets the

global value. Note that if you do this next:

:e one

You will get back the 'list' value as it was the last time you edited "one".

The options local to a window are remembered for each buffer. This also

happens when the buffer is not loaded, but they are lost when the buffer is

wiped out :bwipe.

:setl :setlocalLINK

:setl[ocal] ... Like ":set" but set only the value local to the

current buffer or window. Not all options have a

local value. If the option does not have a local

value the global value is set.

With the "all" argument: display local values for all

local options.

Without argument: Display local values for all local

options which are different from the default.

When displaying a specific local option, show the

local value. For a global/local boolean option, when

the global value is being used, "--" is displayed

before the option name.

For a global option the global value is

shown (but that might change in the future).

{not in Vi}

:setl[ocal] {option}< Set the local value of {option} to its global value by

copying the value.

{not in Vi}

:se[t] {option}< For global-local options: Remove the local value of

{option}, so that the global value will be used.

{not in Vi}

:setg :setglobalLINK

:setg[lobal] ... Like ":set" but set only the global value for a local

option without changing the local value.

When displaying an option, the global value is shown.

With the "all" argument: display global values for all

local options.

Without argument: display global values for all local

options which are different from the default.

{not in Vi}

For buffer-local and window-local options:

Command global value local value

:set option=value set set

:setlocal option=value - set

:setglobal option=value set -

:set option? - display

:setlocal option? - display

:setglobal option? display -

Global options with a local value global-localLINK

Options are global when you mostly use one value for all buffers and windows.

For some global options it's useful to sometimes have a different local value.

You can set the local value with ":setlocal". That buffer or window will then

use the local value, while other buffers and windows continue using the global

value.

For example, you have two windows, both on C source code. They use the global

'makeprg' option. If you do this in one of the two windows:

:set makeprg=gmake

then the other window will switch to the same value. There is no need to set

the 'makeprg' option in the other C source window too.

However, if you start editing a Perl file in a new window, you want to use

another 'makeprg' for it, without changing the value used for the C source

files. You use this command:

:setlocal makeprg=perlmake

You can switch back to using the global value by making the local value empty:

:setlocal makeprg=

This only works for a string option. For a boolean option you need to use the

"<" flag, like this:

:setlocal autoread<

Note that for non-boolean options using "<" copies the global value to the

local value, it doesn't switch back to using the global value (that matters

when the global value changes later). You can also use:

:set path<

This will make the local value of 'path' empty, so that the global value is

used. Thus it does the same as:

:setlocal path=

Note: In the future more global options can be made global-local. Using

":setlocal" on a global option might work differently then.

Setting the filetype

:setf[iletype] {filetype} :setf :setfiletypeLINK

Set the 'filetype' option to {filetype}, but only if

not done yet in a sequence of (nested) autocommands.

This is short for:

:if !did_filetype()

: setlocal filetype={filetype}

:endif

This command is used in a filetype.vim file to avoid

setting the 'filetype' option twice, causing different

settings and syntax files to be loaded.

{not in Vi}

option-window optwinLINK

:bro[wse] se[t] :set-browse :browse-set :opt :optionsLINK

:opt[ions] Open a window for viewing and setting all options.

Options are grouped by function.

Offers short help for each option. Hit <CR> on the

short help to open a help window with more help for

the option.

Modify the value of the option and hit <CR> on the

"set" line to set the new value. For window and

buffer specific options, the last accessed window is

used to set the option value in, unless this is a help

window, in which case the window below help window is

used (skipping the option-window).

{not available when compiled without the +eval or

+autocmd features}

$HOMELINK

Using "~" is like using "$HOME", but it is only recognized at the start of an

option and after a space or comma.

On Unix systems "~user" can be used too. It is replaced by the home directory

of user "user". Example:

:set path=~mool/include,/usr/include,.

On Unix systems the form "${HOME}" can be used too. The name between {} can

contain non-id characters then. Note that if you want to use this for the

"gf" command, you need to add the '{' and '}' characters to 'isfname'.

On MS-Windows, if $HOME is not defined as an environment variable, then

at runtime Vim will set it to the expansion of $HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH.

NOTE: expanding environment variables and "~/" is only done with the ":set"

command, not when assigning a value to an option with ":let".

Note the maximum length of an expanded option is limited. How much depends on

the system, mostly it is something like 256 or 1024 characters.

:fix :fixdelLINK

:fix[del] Set the value of 't_kD':

't_kb' is 't_kD' becomes

CTRL-? CTRL-H

not CTRL-? CTRL-?

(CTRL-? is 0177 octal, 0x7f hex) {not in Vi}

If your delete key terminal code is wrong, but the

code for backspace is alright, you can put this in

your .vimrc:

:fixdel

This works no matter what the actual code for

backspace is.

If the backspace key terminal code is wrong you can

use this:

:if &term == "termname"

: set t_kb=^V<BS>

: fixdel

:endif

Where "^V" is CTRL-V and "<BS>" is the backspace key

(don't type four characters!). Replace "termname"

with your terminal name.

If your <Delete> key sends a strange key sequence (not

CTRL-? or CTRL-H) you cannot use ":fixdel". Then use:

:if &term == "termname"

: set t_kD=^V<Delete>

:endif

Where "^V" is CTRL-V and "<Delete>" is the delete key

(don't type eight characters!). Replace "termname"

with your terminal name.

Linux-backspaceLINK

Note about Linux: By default the backspace key

produces CTRL-?, which is wrong. You can fix it by

putting this line in your rc.local:

echo "keycode 14 = BackSpace" | loadkeys

NetBSD-backspaceLINK

Note about NetBSD: If your backspace doesn't produce

the right code, try this:

xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"

If this works, add this in your .Xmodmap file:

keysym 22 = BackSpace

You need to restart for this to take effect.

==============================================================================

2. Automatically setting options auto-settingLINK

Besides changing options with the ":set" command, there are three alternatives

to set options automatically for one or more files:

1. When starting Vim initializations are read from various places. See

initialization. Most of them are performed for all editing sessions,

and some of them depend on the directory where Vim is started.

You can create an initialization file with :mkvimrc, :mkview and

:mksession.

2. If you start editing a new file, the automatic commands are executed.

This can be used to set options for files matching a particular pattern and

many other things. See autocommand.

3. If you start editing a new file, and the 'modeline' option is on, a

number of lines at the beginning and end of the file are checked for

modelines. This is explained here.

modeline vim: vi: ex: E520LINK

There are two forms of modelines. The first form:

[text]{white}{vi:|vim:|ex:}[white]{options}

[text] any text or empty

{white} at least one blank character (<Space> or <Tab>)

{vi:|vim:|ex:} the string "vi:", "vim:" or "ex:"

[white] optional white space

{options} a list of option settings, separated with white space

or ':', where each part between ':' is the argument

for a ":set" command (can be empty)

Examples:

vi:noai:sw=3 ts=6

vim: tw=77

The second form (this is compatible with some versions of Vi):

[text]{white}{vi:|vim:|Vim:|ex:}[white]se[t] {options}:[text]

[text] any text or empty

{white} at least one blank character (<Space> or <Tab>)

{vi:|vim:|Vim:|ex:} the string "vi:", "vim:", "Vim:" or "ex:"

[white] optional white space

se[t] the string "set " or "se " (note the space); When

"Vim" is used it must be "set".

{options} a list of options, separated with white space, which

is the argument for a ":set" command

: a colon

[text] any text or empty

Examples:

/* vim: set ai tw=75: */

/* Vim: set ai tw=75: */

The white space before {vi:|vim:|Vim:|ex:} is required. This minimizes the

chance that a normal word like "lex:" is caught. There is one exception:

"vi:" and "vim:" can also be at the start of the line (for compatibility with

version 3.0). Using "ex:" at the start of the line will be ignored (this

could be short for "example:").

modeline-localLINK

The options are set like with ":setlocal": The new value only applies to the

buffer and window that contain the file. Although it's possible to set global

options from a modeline, this is unusual. If you have two windows open and

the files in it set the same global option to a different value, the result

depends on which one was opened last.

When editing a file that was already loaded, only the window-local options

from the modeline are used. Thus if you manually changed a buffer-local

option after opening the file, it won't be changed if you edit the same buffer

in another window. But window-local options will be set.

modeline-versionLINK

If the modeline is only to be used for some versions of Vim, the version

number can be specified where "vim:" or "Vim:" is used:

vim{vers}: version {vers} or later

vim<{vers}: version before {vers}

vim={vers}: version {vers}

vim>{vers}: version after {vers}

{vers} is 600 for Vim 6.0 (hundred times the major version plus minor).

For example, to use a modeline only for Vim 6.0 and later:

/* vim600: set foldmethod=marker: */

To use a modeline for Vim before version 5.7:

/* vim<570: set sw=4: */

There can be no blanks between "vim" and the ":".

The number of lines that are checked can be set with the 'modelines' option.

If 'modeline' is off or 'modelines' is 0 no lines are checked.

Note that for the first form all of the rest of the line is used, thus a line

like:

/* vi:ts=4: */

will give an error message for the trailing "*/". This line is OK:

/* vi:set ts=4: */

If an error is detected the rest of the line is skipped.

If you want to include a ':' in a set command precede it with a '\'. The

backslash in front of the ':' will be removed. Example:

/* vi:set dir=c\:\tmp: */

This sets the 'dir' option to "c:\tmp". Only a single backslash before the

':' is removed. Thus to include "\:" you have to specify "\\:".

No other commands than "set" are supported, for security reasons (somebody

might create a Trojan horse text file with modelines). And not all options

can be set. For some options a flag is set, so that when it's used the

sandbox is effective. Still, there is always a small risk that a modeline

causes trouble. E.g., when some joker sets 'textwidth' to 5 all your lines

are wrapped unexpectedly. So disable modelines before editing untrusted text.

The mail ftplugin does this, for example.

Hint: If you would like to do something else than setting an option, you could

define an autocommand that checks the file for a specific string. For

example:

au BufReadPost * if getline(1) =~ "VAR" | call SetVar() | endif

And define a function SetVar() that does something with the line containing

"VAR".

==============================================================================

3. Options summary option-summaryLINK

In the list below all the options are mentioned with their full name and with

an abbreviation if there is one. Both forms may be used.

In this document when a boolean option is "set" that means that ":set option"

is entered. When an option is "reset", ":set nooption" is used.

For some options there are two default values: The "Vim default", which is

used when 'compatible' is not set, and the "Vi default", which is used when

'compatible' is set.

Most options are the same in all windows and buffers. There are a few that

are specific to how the text is presented in a window. These can be set to a

different value in each window. For example the 'list' option can be set in

one window and reset in another for the same text, giving both types of view

at the same time. There are a few options that are specific to a certain

file. These can have a different value for each file or buffer. For example

the 'textwidth' option can be 78 for a normal text file and 0 for a C

program.

global one option for all buffers and windows

local to window each window has its own copy of this option

local to buffer each buffer has its own copy of this option

When creating a new window the option values from the currently active window

are used as a default value for the window-specific options. For the

buffer-specific options this depends on the 's' and 'S' flags in the

'cpoptions' option. If 's' is included (which is the default) the values for

buffer options are copied from the currently active buffer when a buffer is

first entered. If 'S' is present the options are copied each time the buffer

is entered, this is almost like having global options. If 's' and 'S' are not

present, the options are copied from the currently active buffer when the

buffer is created.

Hidden options hidden-optionsLINK

Not all options are supported in all versions. This depends on the supported

features and sometimes on the system. A remark about this is in curly braces

below. When an option is not supported it may still be set without getting an

error, this is called a hidden option. You can't get the value of a hidden

option though, it is not stored.

To test if option "foo" can be used with ":set" use something like this:

if exists('&foo')

This also returns true for a hidden option. To test if option "foo" is really

supported use something like this:

if exists('+foo')

E355LINK

A jump table for the options with a short description can be found at Q_op.

'aleph' 'al' aleph AlephLINK

'aleph' 'al' number (default 128 for MS-DOS, 224 otherwise)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +rightleft

feature}

The ASCII code for the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The

routine that maps the keyboard in Hebrew mode, both in Insert mode

(when hkmap is set) and on the command-line (when hitting CTRL-_)

outputs the Hebrew characters in the range [aleph..aleph+26].

aleph=128 applies to PC code, and aleph=224 applies to ISO 8859-8.

See rileft.txt.

'allowrevins' 'ari' 'noallowrevins' 'noari'LINK

'allowrevins' 'ari' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +rightleft

feature}

Allow CTRL-_ in Insert and Command-line mode. This is default off, to

avoid that users that accidentally type CTRL-_ instead of SHIFT-_ get

into reverse Insert mode, and don't know how to get out. See

'revins'.

NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' is set.

'altkeymap' 'akm' 'noaltkeymap' 'noakm'LINK

'altkeymap' 'akm' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +farsi

feature}

When on, the second language is Farsi. In editing mode CTRL-_ toggles

the keyboard map between Farsi and English, when 'allowrevins' set.

When off, the keyboard map toggles between Hebrew and English. This

is useful to start the Vim in native mode i.e. English (left-to-right

mode) and have default second language Farsi or Hebrew (right-to-left

mode). See farsi.txt.

'ambiwidth' 'ambw'LINK

'ambiwidth' 'ambw' string (default: "single")

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +multi_byte

feature}

Only effective when 'encoding' is "utf-8" or another Unicode encoding.

Tells Vim what to do with characters with East Asian Width Class

Ambiguous (such as Euro, Registered Sign, Copyright Sign, Greek

letters, Cyrillic letters).

There are currently two possible values:

"single": Use the same width as characters in US-ASCII. This is

expected by most users.

"double": Use twice the width of ASCII characters.

E834 E835LINK

The value "double" cannot be used if 'listchars' or 'fillchars'

contains a character that would be double width.

There are a number of CJK fonts for which the width of glyphs for

those characters are solely based on how many octets they take in

legacy/traditional CJK encodings. In those encodings, Euro,

Registered sign, Greek/Cyrillic letters are represented by two octets,

therefore those fonts have "wide" glyphs for them. This is also

true of some line drawing characters used to make tables in text

file. Therefore, when a CJK font is used for GUI Vim or

Vim is running inside a terminal (emulators) that uses a CJK font

(or Vim is run inside an xterm invoked with "-cjkwidth" option.),

this option should be set to "double" to match the width perceived

by Vim with the width of glyphs in the font. Perhaps it also has

to be set to "double" under CJK Windows 9x/ME or Windows 2k/XP

when the system locale is set to one of CJK locales. See Unicode

Standard Annex #11 (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr11).

Vim may set this option automatically at startup time when Vim is

compiled with the +termresponse feature and if t_u7 is set to the

escape sequence to request cursor position report.

'antialias' 'anti' 'noantialias' 'noanti'LINK

'antialias' 'anti' boolean (default: off)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with GUI enabled

on Mac OS X}

This option only has an effect in the GUI version of Vim on Mac OS X

v10.2 or later. When on, Vim will use smooth ("antialiased") fonts,

which can be easier to read at certain sizes on certain displays.

Setting this option can sometimes cause problems if 'guifont' is set

to its default (empty string).

'autochdir' 'acd' 'noautochdir' 'noacd'LINK

'autochdir' 'acd' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with it, use

exists("+autochdir") to check}

When on, Vim will change the current working directory whenever you

open a file, switch buffers, delete a buffer or open/close a window.

It will change to the directory containing the file which was opened

or selected.

This option is provided for backward compatibility with the Vim

released with Sun ONE Studio 4 Enterprise Edition.

Note: When this option is on some plugins may not work.

'arabic' 'arab' 'noarabic' 'noarab'LINK

'arabic' 'arab' boolean (default off)

local to window

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +arabic

feature}

This option can be set to start editing Arabic text.

Setting this option will:

- Set the 'rightleft' option, unless 'termbidi' is set.

- Set the 'arabicshape' option, unless 'termbidi' is set.

- Set the 'keymap' option to "arabic"; in Insert mode CTRL-^ toggles

between typing English and Arabic key mapping.

- Set the 'delcombine' option

Note that 'encoding' must be "utf-8" for working with Arabic text.

Resetting this option will:

- Reset the 'rightleft' option.

- Disable the use of 'keymap' (without changing its value).

Note that 'arabicshape' and 'delcombine' are not reset (it is a global

option).

Also see arabic.txt.

'arabicshape' 'arshape'LINK

'noarabicshape' 'noarshape'LINK

'arabicshape' 'arshape' boolean (default on)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +arabic

feature}

When on and 'termbidi' is off, the required visual character

corrections that need to take place for displaying the Arabic language

take effect. Shaping, in essence, gets enabled; the term is a broad

one which encompasses:

a) the changing/morphing of characters based on their location

within a word (initial, medial, final and stand-alone).

b) the enabling of the ability to compose characters

c) the enabling of the required combining of some characters

When disabled the display shows each character's true stand-alone

form.

Arabic is a complex language which requires other settings, for

further details see arabic.txt.

'autoindent' 'ai' 'noautoindent' 'noai'LINK

'autoindent' 'ai' boolean (default off)

local to buffer

Copy indent from current line when starting a new line (typing <CR>

in Insert mode or when using the "o" or "O" command). If you do not

type anything on the new line except <BS> or CTRL-D and then type

<Esc>, CTRL-O or <CR>, the indent is deleted again. Moving the cursor

to another line has the same effect, unless the 'I' flag is included

in 'cpoptions'.

When autoindent is on, formatting (with the "gq" command or when you

reach 'textwidth' in Insert mode) uses the indentation of the first

line.

When 'smartindent' or 'cindent' is on the indent is changed in

a different way.

The 'autoindent' option is reset when the 'paste' option is set.

{small difference from Vi: After the indent is deleted when typing

<Esc> or <CR>, the cursor position when moving up or down is after the

deleted indent; Vi puts the cursor somewhere in the deleted indent}.

'autoread' 'ar' 'noautoread' 'noar'LINK

'autoread' 'ar' boolean (default off)

global or local to buffer global-local

{not in Vi}

When a file has been detected to have been changed outside of Vim and

it has not been changed inside of Vim, automatically read it again.

When the file has been deleted this is not done. timestamp

If this option has a local value, use this command to switch back to

using the global value:

:set autoread<

'autowrite' 'aw' 'noautowrite' 'noaw'LINK

'autowrite' 'aw' boolean (default off)

global

Write the contents of the file, if it has been modified, on each

:next, :rewind, :last, :first, :previous, :stop, :suspend, :tag, :!,

:make, CTRL-] and CTRL-^ command; and when a :buffer, CTRL-O, CTRL-I,

'{A-Z0-9}, or `{A-Z0-9} command takes one to another file.

Note that for some commands the 'autowrite' option is not used, see

'autowriteall' for that.

'autowriteall' 'awa' 'noautowriteall' 'noawa'LINK

'autowriteall' 'awa' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

Like 'autowrite', but also used for commands ":edit", ":enew", ":quit",

":qall", ":exit", ":xit", ":recover" and closing the Vim window.

Setting this option also implies that Vim behaves like 'autowrite' has

been set.

'background' 'bg'LINK

'background' 'bg' string (default "dark" or "light", see below)

global

{not in Vi}

When set to "dark", Vim will try to use colors that look good on a

dark background. When set to "light", Vim will try to use colors that

look good on a light background. Any other value is illegal.

Vim tries to set the default value according to the terminal used.

This will not always be correct.

Setting this option does not change the background color, it tells Vim

what the background color looks like. For changing the background

color, see :hi-normal.

When 'background' is set Vim will adjust the default color groups for

the new value. But the colors used for syntax highlighting will not

change. g:colors_nameLINK

When a color scheme is loaded (the "g:colors_name" variable is set)

setting 'background' will cause the color scheme to be reloaded. If

the color scheme adjusts to the value of 'background' this will work.

However, if the color scheme sets 'background' itself the effect may

be undone. First delete the "g:colors_name" variable when needed.

When setting 'background' to the default value with:

:set background&

Vim will guess the value. In the GUI this should work correctly,

in other cases Vim might not be able to guess the right value.

When starting the GUI, the default value for 'background' will be

"light". When the value is not set in the .gvimrc, and Vim detects

that the background is actually quite dark, 'background' is set to

"dark". But this happens only AFTER the .gvimrc file has been read

(because the window needs to be opened to find the actual background

color). To get around this, force the GUI window to be opened by

putting a ":gui" command in the .gvimrc file, before where the value

of 'background' is used (e.g., before ":syntax on").

For MS-DOS, Windows and OS/2 the default is "dark".

For other systems "dark" is used when 'term' is "linux",

"screen.linux", "cygwin" or "putty", or $COLORFGBG suggests a dark

background. Otherwise the default is "light".

Normally this option would be set in the .vimrc file. Possibly

depending on the terminal name. Example:

:if &term == "pcterm"

: set background=dark

:endif

When this option is set, the default settings for the highlight groups

will change. To use other settings, place ":highlight" commands AFTER

the setting of the 'background' option.

This option is also used in the "$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim" file

to select the colors for syntax highlighting. After changing this

option, you must load syntax.vim again to see the result. This can be

done with ":syntax on".

'backspace' 'bs'LINK

'backspace' 'bs' string (default "")

global

{not in Vi}

Influences the working of <BS>, <Del>, CTRL-W and CTRL-U in Insert

mode. This is a list of items, separated by commas. Each item allows

a way to backspace over something:

value effect

indent allow backspacing over autoindent

eol allow backspacing over line breaks (join lines)

start allow backspacing over the start of insert; CTRL-W and CTRL-U

stop once at the start of insert.

When the value is empty, Vi compatible backspacing is used.

For backwards compatibility with version 5.4 and earlier:

value effect

0 same as ":set backspace=" (Vi compatible)

1 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol"

2 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol,start"

See :fixdel if your <BS> or <Del> key does not do what you want.

NOTE: This option is set to "" when 'compatible' is set.

'backup' 'bk' 'nobackup' 'nobk'LINK

'backup' 'bk' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

Make a backup before overwriting a file. Leave it around after the

file has been successfully written. If you do not want to keep the

backup file, but you do want a backup while the file is being

written, reset this option and set the 'writebackup' option (this is

the default). If you do not want a backup file at all reset both

options (use this if your file system is almost full). See the

backup-table for more explanations.

When the 'backupskip' pattern matches, a backup is not made anyway.

When 'patchmode' is set, the backup may be renamed to become the

oldest version of a file.

NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' is set.

'backupcopy' 'bkc'LINK

'backupcopy' 'bkc' string (Vi default for Unix: "yes", otherwise: "auto")

global or local to buffer global-local

{not in Vi}

When writing a file and a backup is made, this option tells how it's

done. This is a comma separated list of words.

The main values are:

"yes" make a copy of the file and overwrite the original one

"no" rename the file and write a new one

"auto" one of the previous, what works best

Extra values that can be combined with the ones above are:

"breaksymlink" always break symlinks when writing

"breakhardlink" always break hardlinks when writing

Making a copy and overwriting the original file:

- Takes extra time to copy the file.

+ When the file has special attributes, is a (hard/symbolic) link or

has a resource fork, all this is preserved.

- When the file is a link the backup will have the name of the link,

not of the real file.

Renaming the file and writing a new one:

+ It's fast.

- Sometimes not all attributes of the file can be copied to the new

file.

- When the file is a link the new file will not be a link.

The "auto" value is the middle way: When Vim sees that renaming file

is possible without side effects (the attributes can be passed on and

the file is not a link) that is used. When problems are expected, a

copy will be made.

The "breaksymlink" and "breakhardlink" values can be used in

combination with any of "yes", "no" and "auto". When included, they

force Vim to always break either symbolic or hard links by doing

exactly what the "no" option does, renaming the original file to

become the backup and writing a new file in its place. This can be

useful for example in source trees where all the files are symbolic or

hard links and any changes should stay in the local source tree, not

be propagated back to the original source.

crontabLINK

One situation where "no" and "auto" will cause problems: A program

that opens a file, invokes Vim to edit that file, and then tests if

the open file was changed (through the file descriptor) will check the

backup file instead of the newly created file. "crontab -e" is an

example.

When a copy is made, the original file is truncated and then filled

with the new text. This means that protection bits, owner and

symbolic links of the original file are unmodified. The backup file

however, is a new file, owned by the user who edited the file. The

group of the backup is set to the group of the original file. If this

fails, the protection bits for the group are made the same as for

others.

When the file is renamed this is the other way around: The backup has

the same attributes of the original file, and the newly written file

is owned by the current user. When the file was a (hard/symbolic)

link, the new file will not! That's why the "auto" value doesn't

rename when the file is a link. The owner and group of the newly

written file will be set to the same ones as the original file, but

the system may refuse to do this. In that case the "auto" value will

again not rename the file.

'backupdir' 'bdir'LINK

'backupdir' 'bdir' string (default for Amiga: ".,t:",

for MS-DOS and Win32: ".,$TEMP,c:/tmp,c:/temp"

for Unix: ".,~/tmp,~/")

global

{not in Vi}

List of directories for the backup file, separated with commas.

- The backup file will be created in the first directory in the list

where this is possible. The directory must exist, Vim will not

create it for you.

- Empty means that no backup file will be created ( 'patchmode' is

impossible!). Writing may fail because of this.

- A directory "." means to put the backup file in the same directory

as the edited file.

- A directory starting with "./" (or ".\" for MS-DOS et al.) means to

put the backup file relative to where the edited file is. The

leading "." is replaced with the path name of the edited file.

("." inside a directory name has no special meaning).

- Spaces after the comma are ignored, other spaces are considered part

of the directory name. To have a space at the start of a directory

name, precede it with a backslash.

- To include a comma in a directory name precede it with a backslash.

- A directory name may end in an '/'.

- Environment variables are expanded :set_env.

- Careful with '\' characters, type one before a space, type two to

get one in the option (see option-backslash), for example:

:set bdir=c:\\tmp,\ dir\\,with\\,commas,\\\ dir\ with\ spaces

- For backwards compatibility with Vim version 3.0 a '>' at the start

of the option is removed.

See also 'backup' and 'writebackup' options.

If you want to hide your backup files on Unix, consider this value:

:set backupdir=./.backup,~/.backup,.,/tmp

You must create a ".backup" directory in each directory and in your

home directory for this to work properly.

The use of :set+= and :set-= is preferred when adding or removing

directories from the list. This avoids problems when a future version

uses another default.

This option cannot be set from a modeline or in the sandbox, for

security reasons.

'backupext' 'bex' E589LINK

'backupext' 'bex' string (default "~", for VMS: "_")

global

{not in Vi}

String which is appended to a file name to make the name of the

backup file. The default is quite unusual, because this avoids

accidentally overwriting existing files with a backup file. You might

prefer using ".bak", but make sure that you don't have files with

".bak" that you want to keep.

Only normal file name characters can be used, "/\*?[|<>" are illegal.

If you like to keep a lot of backups, you could use a BufWritePre

autocommand to change 'backupext' just before writing the file to

include a timestamp.

:au BufWritePre * let &bex = '-' . strftime("%Y%b%d%X") . '~'

Use 'backupdir' to put the backup in a different directory.

'backupskip' 'bsk'LINK

'backupskip' 'bsk' string (default: "/tmp/*,$TMPDIR/*,$TMP/*,$TEMP/*")

global

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +wildignore

feature}

A list of file patterns. When one of the patterns matches with the

name of the file which is written, no backup file is created. Both

the specified file name and the full path name of the file are used.

The pattern is used like with :autocmd, see autocmd-patterns.

Watch out for special characters, see option-backslash.

When $TMPDIR, $TMP or $TEMP is not defined, it is not used for the

default value. "/tmp/*" is only used for Unix.

WARNING: Not having a backup file means that when Vim fails to write

your buffer correctly and then, for whatever reason, Vim exits, you

lose both the original file and what you were writing. Only disable

backups if you don't care about losing the file.

Note that environment variables are not expanded. If you want to use

$HOME you must expand it explicitly, e.g.:

:let backupskip = escape(expand('$HOME'), '\') . '/tmp/*'

Note that the default also makes sure that "crontab -e" works (when a

backup would be made by renaming the original file crontab won't see

the newly created file). Also see 'backupcopy' and crontab.

'balloondelay' 'bdlay'LINK

'balloondelay' 'bdlay' number (default: 600)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +balloon_eval

feature}

Delay in milliseconds before a balloon may pop up. See balloon-eval.

'ballooneval' 'beval' 'noballooneval' 'nobeval'LINK

'ballooneval' 'beval' boolean (default off)

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +balloon_eval

feature}

Switch on the balloon-eval functionality.

'balloonexpr' 'bexpr'LINK

'balloonexpr' 'bexpr' string (default "")

global or local to buffer global-local

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +balloon_eval

feature}

Expression for text to show in evaluation balloon. It is only used

when 'ballooneval' is on. These variables can be used:

v:beval_bufnr number of the buffer in which balloon is going to show

v:beval_winnr number of the window

v:beval_lnum line number

v:beval_col column number (byte index)

v:beval_text word under or after the mouse pointer

The evaluation of the expression must not have side effects!

Example:

function! MyBalloonExpr()

return 'Cursor is at line ' . v:beval_lnum .

\', column ' . v:beval_col .

\ ' of file ' . bufname(v:beval_bufnr) .

\ ' on word "' . v:beval_text . '"'

endfunction

set bexpr=MyBalloonExpr()

set ballooneval

NOTE: The balloon is displayed only if the cursor is on a text

character. If the result of evaluating 'balloonexpr' is not empty,

Vim does not try to send a message to an external debugger (Netbeans

or Sun Workshop).

The expression will be evaluated in the sandbox when set from a

modeline, see sandbox-option.

It is not allowed to change text or jump to another window while

evaluating 'balloonexpr' textlock.

To check whether line breaks in the balloon text work use this check:

if has("balloon_multiline")

When they are supported "\n" characters will start a new line. If the

expression evaluates to a List this is equal to using each List item

as a string and putting "\n" in between them.

'binary' 'bin' 'nobinary' 'nobin'LINK

'binary' 'bin' boolean (default off)

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

This option should be set before editing a binary file. You can also

use the -b Vim argument. When this option is switched on a few

options will be changed (also when it already was on):

'textwidth' will be set to 0

'wrapmargin' will be set to 0

'modeline' will be off

'expandtab' will be off

Also, 'fileformat' and 'fileformats' options will not be used, the

file is read and written like 'fileformat' was "unix" (a single <NL>

separates lines).

The 'fileencoding' and 'fileencodings' options will not be used, the

file is read without conversion.

NOTE: When you start editing a(nother) file while the 'bin' option is

on, settings from autocommands may change the settings again (e.g.,

'textwidth'), causing trouble when editing. You might want to set

'bin' again when the file has been loaded.

The previous values of these options are remembered and restored when

'bin' is switched from on to off. Each buffer has its own set of

saved option values.

To edit a file with 'binary' set you can use the ++bin argument.

This avoids you have to do ":set bin", which would have effect for all

files you edit.

When writing a file the <EOL> for the last line is only written if

there was one in the original file (normally Vim appends an <EOL> to

the last line if there is none; this would make the file longer). See

the 'endofline' option.

'bioskey' 'biosk' 'nobioskey' 'nobiosk'LINK

'bioskey' 'biosk' boolean (default on)

global

{not in Vi} {only for MS-DOS}

When on the BIOS is called to obtain a keyboard character. This works

better to detect CTRL-C, but only works for the console. When using a

terminal over a serial port reset this option.

Also see 'conskey'.

'bomb' 'nobomb'LINK

'bomb' boolean (default off)

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +multi_byte

feature}

When writing a file and the following conditions are met, a BOM (Byte

Order Mark) is prepended to the file:

- this option is on

- the 'binary' option is off

- 'fileencoding' is "utf-8", "ucs-2", "ucs-4" or one of the little/big

endian variants.

Some applications use the BOM to recognize the encoding of the file.

Often used for UCS-2 files on MS-Windows. For other applications it

causes trouble, for example: "cat file1 file2" makes the BOM of file2

appear halfway the resulting file. Gcc doesn't accept a BOM.

When Vim reads a file and 'fileencodings' starts with "ucs-bom", a

check for the presence of the BOM is done and 'bomb' set accordingly.

Unless 'binary' is set, it is removed from the first line, so that you

don't see it when editing. When you don't change the options, the BOM

will be restored when writing the file.

'breakat' 'brk'LINK

'breakat' 'brk' string (default " ^I!@*-+;:,./?")

global

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +linebreak

feature}

This option lets you choose which characters might cause a line

break if 'linebreak' is on. Only works for ASCII and also for 8-bit

characters when 'encoding' is an 8-bit encoding.

'breakindent' 'bri'LINK

'breakindent' 'bri' boolean (default off)

local to window

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +linebreak

feature}

Every wrapped line will continue visually indented (same amount of

space as the beginning of that line), thus preserving horizontal blocks

of text.

'breakindentopt' 'briopt'LINK

'breakindentopt' 'briopt' string (default empty)

local to window

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +linebreak

feature}

Settings for 'breakindent'. It can consist of the following optional

items and must be separated by a comma:

min:{n} Minimum text width that will be kept after

applying 'breakindent', even if the resulting

text should normally be narrower. This prevents

text indented almost to the right window border

occupying lot of vertical space when broken.

shift:{n} After applying 'breakindent', the wrapped line's

beginning will be shifted by the given number of

characters. It permits dynamic French paragraph

indentation (negative) or emphasizing the line

continuation (positive).

sbr Display the 'showbreak' value before applying the

additional indent.

The default value for min is 20 and shift is 0.

'browsedir' 'bsdir'LINK

'browsedir' 'bsdir' string (default: "last")

global

{not in Vi} {only for Motif, Athena, GTK, Mac and

Win32 GUI}

Which directory to use for the file browser:

last Use same directory as with last file browser, where a

file was opened or saved.

buffer Use the directory of the related buffer.

current Use the current directory.

{path} Use the specified directory

'bufhidden' 'bh'LINK

'bufhidden' 'bh' string (default: "")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +quickfix

feature}

This option specifies what happens when a buffer is no longer

displayed in a window:

<empty> follow the global 'hidden' option

hide hide the buffer (don't unload it), also when 'hidden'

is not set

unload unload the buffer, also when 'hidden' is set or using

:hide

delete delete the buffer from the buffer list, also when

'hidden' is set or using :hide, like using

:bdelete

wipe wipe out the buffer from the buffer list, also when

'hidden' is set or using :hide, like using

:bwipeout

CAREFUL: when "unload", "delete" or "wipe" is used changes in a buffer

are lost without a warning. Also, these values may break autocommands

that switch between buffers temporarily.

This option is used together with 'buftype' and 'swapfile' to specify

special kinds of buffers. See special-buffers.

'buflisted' 'bl' 'nobuflisted' 'nobl' E85LINK

'buflisted' 'bl' boolean (default: on)

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

When this option is set, the buffer shows up in the buffer list. If

it is reset it is not used for ":bnext", "ls", the Buffers menu, etc.

This option is reset by Vim for buffers that are only used to remember

a file name or marks. Vim sets it when starting to edit a buffer.

But not when moving to a buffer with ":buffer".

'buftype' 'bt' E382LINK

'buftype' 'bt' string (default: "")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +quickfix

feature}

The value of this option specifies the type of a buffer:

<empty> normal buffer

nofile buffer which is not related to a file and will not be

written

nowrite buffer which will not be written

acwrite buffer which will always be written with BufWriteCmd

autocommands. {not available when compiled without the

+autocmd feature}

quickfix quickfix buffer, contains list of errors :cwindow

or list of locations :lwindow

help help buffer (you are not supposed to set this

manually)

This option is used together with 'bufhidden' and 'swapfile' to

specify special kinds of buffers. See special-buffers.

Be careful with changing this option, it can have many side effects!

A "quickfix" buffer is only used for the error list and the location

list. This value is set by the :cwindow and :lwindow commands and

you are not supposed to change it.

"nofile" and "nowrite" buffers are similar:

both: The buffer is not to be written to disk, ":w" doesn't

work (":w filename" does work though).

both: The buffer is never considered to be 'modified'.

There is no warning when the changes will be lost, for

example when you quit Vim.

both: A swap file is only created when using too much memory

(when 'swapfile' has been reset there is never a swap

file).

nofile only: The buffer name is fixed, it is not handled like a

file name. It is not modified in response to a :cd

command.

E676LINK

"acwrite" implies that the buffer name is not related to a file, like

"nofile", but it will be written. Thus, in contrast to "nofile" and

"nowrite", ":w" does work and a modified buffer can't be abandoned

without saving. For writing there must be matching BufWriteCmd,

FileWriteCmd or FileAppendCmd autocommands.

'casemap' 'cmp'LINK

'casemap' 'cmp' string (default: "internal,keepascii")

global

{not in Vi}

{only available when compiled with the +multi_byte

feature}

Specifies details about changing the case of letters. It may contain

these words, separated by a comma:

internal Use internal case mapping functions, the current

locale does not change the case mapping. This only

matters when 'encoding' is a Unicode encoding,

"latin1" or "iso-8859-15". When "internal" is

omitted, the towupper() and towlower() system library

functions are used when available.

keepascii For the ASCII characters (0x00 to 0x7f) use the US

case mapping, the current locale is not effective.

This probably only matters for Turkish.

'cdpath' 'cd' E344 E346LINK

'cdpath' 'cd' string (default: equivalent to $CDPATH or ",,")

global

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the

+file_in_path feature}

This is a list of directories which will be searched when using the

:cd and :lcd commands, provided that the directory being searched

for has a relative path, not an absolute part starting with "/", "./"

or "../", the 'cdpath' option is not used then.

The 'cdpath' option's value has the same form and semantics as

'path'. Also see file-searching.

The default value is taken from $CDPATH, with a "," prepended to look

in the current directory first.

If the default value taken from $CDPATH is not what you want, include

a modified version of the following command in your vimrc file to

override it:

:let &cdpath = ',' . substitute(substitute($CDPATH, '[, ]', '\\\0', 'g'), ':', ',', 'g')

This option cannot be set from a modeline or in the sandbox, for

security reasons.

(parts of 'cdpath' can be passed to the shell to expand file names).

'cedit'LINK

'cedit' string (Vi default: "", Vim default: CTRL-F)

global

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +vertsplit

feature}

The key used in Command-line Mode to open the command-line window.

The default is CTRL-F when 'compatible' is off.

Only non-printable keys are allowed.

The key can be specified as a single character, but it is difficult to

type. The preferred way is to use the <> notation. Examples:

:set cedit=<C-Y>

:set cedit=<Esc>

Nvi also has this option, but it only uses the first character.

See cmdwin.

'charconvert' 'ccv' E202 E214 E513LINK

'charconvert' 'ccv' string (default "")

global

{only available when compiled with the +multi_byte

and +eval features}

{not in Vi}

An expression that is used for character encoding conversion. It is

evaluated when a file that is to be read or has been written has a

different encoding from what is desired.

'charconvert' is not used when the internal iconv() function is

supported and is able to do the conversion. Using iconv() is

preferred, because it is much faster.

'charconvert' is not used when reading stdin --, because there is no

file to convert from. You will have to save the text in a file first.

The expression must return zero or an empty string for success,

non-zero for failure.

The possible encoding names encountered are in 'encoding'.

Additionally, names given in 'fileencodings' and 'fileencoding' are

used.

Conversion between "latin1", "unicode", "ucs-2", "ucs-4" and "utf-8"

is done internally by Vim, 'charconvert' is not used for this.

'charconvert' is also used to convert the viminfo file, if the 'c'

flag is present in 'viminfo'. Also used for Unicode conversion.

Example:

set charconvert=CharConvert()

fun CharConvert()

system("recode "

\ . v:charconvert_from . ".." . v:charconvert_to

\ . " <" . v:fname_in . " >" v:fname_out)

return v:shell_error

endfun

The related Vim variables are:

v:charconvert_from name of the current encoding

v:charconvert_to name of the desired encoding

v:fname_in name of the input file

v:fname_out name of the output file

Note that v:fname_in and v:fname_out will never be the same.

Note that v:charconvert_from and v:charconvert_to may be different

from 'encoding'. Vim internally uses UTF-8 instead of UCS-2 or UCS-4.

Encryption is not done by Vim when using 'charconvert'. If you want

to encrypt the file after conversion, 'charconvert' should take care

of this.

This option cannot be set from a modeline or in the sandbox, for

security reasons.

'cindent' 'cin' 'nocindent' 'nocin'LINK

'cindent' 'cin' boolean (default off)

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +cindent

feature}

Enables automatic C program indenting. See 'cinkeys' to set the keys

that trigger reindenting in insert mode and 'cinoptions' to set your

preferred indent style.

If 'indentexpr' is not empty, it overrules 'cindent'.

If 'lisp' is not on and both 'indentexpr' and 'equalprg' are empty,

the "=" operator indents using this algorithm rather than calling an

external program.

See C-indenting.

When you don't like the way 'cindent' works, try the 'smartindent'

option or 'indentexpr'.

This option is not used when 'paste' is set.

NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' is set.

'cinkeys' 'cink'LINK

'cinkeys' 'cink' string (default "0{,0},0),:,0#,!^F,o,O,e")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +cindent

feature}

A list of keys that, when typed in Insert mode, cause reindenting of

the current line. Only used if 'cindent' is on and 'indentexpr' is

empty.

For the format of this option see cinkeys-format.

See C-indenting.

'cinoptions' 'cino'LINK

'cinoptions' 'cino' string (default "")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +cindent

feature}

The 'cinoptions' affect the way 'cindent' reindents lines in a C

program. See cinoptions-values for the values of this option, and

C-indenting for info on C indenting in general.

'cinwords' 'cinw'LINK

'cinwords' 'cinw' string (default "if,else,while,do,for,switch")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without both the

+cindent and the +smartindent features}

These keywords start an extra indent in the next line when

'smartindent' or 'cindent' is set. For 'cindent' this is only done at

an appropriate place (inside {}).

Note that 'ignorecase' isn't used for 'cinwords'. If case doesn't

matter, include the keyword both the uppercase and lowercase:

"if,If,IF".

'clipboard' 'cb'LINK

'clipboard' 'cb' string (default "autoselect,exclude:cons\|linux"

for X-windows, "" otherwise)

global

{not in Vi}

{only in GUI versions or when the +xterm_clipboard

feature is included}

This option is a list of comma separated names.

These names are recognized:

clipboard-unnamedLINK

unnamed When included, Vim will use the clipboard register '*'

for all yank, delete, change and put operations which

would normally go to the unnamed register. When a

used regardless of whether "unnamed" is in 'clipboard'

or not. The clipboard register can always be

explicitly accessed using the "* notation. Also see

gui-clipboard.

clipboard-unnamedplusLINK

unnamedplus A variant of the "unnamed" flag which uses the

clipboard register '+' (quoteplus) instead of

operations which would normally go to the unnamed

option, yank operations (but not delete, change or

put) will additionally copy the text into register

'*'.

Only available with the +X11 feature.

Availability can be checked with:

if has('unnamedplus')

clipboard-autoselectLINK

autoselect Works like the 'a' flag in 'guioptions': If present,

then whenever Visual mode is started, or the Visual

area extended, Vim tries to become the owner of the

windowing system's global selection or put the

selected text on the clipboard used by the selection

details. When the GUI is active, the 'a' flag in

'guioptions' is used, when the GUI is not active, this

"autoselect" flag is used.

Also applies to the modeless selection.

clipboard-autoselectplusLINK

autoselectplus Like "autoselect" but using the + register instead of

the * register. Compare to the 'P' flag in

'guioptions'.

clipboard-autoselectmlLINK

autoselectml Like "autoselect", but for the modeless selection

only. Compare to the 'A' flag in 'guioptions'.

clipboard-htmlLINK

html When the clipboard contains HTML, use this when

pasting. When putting text on the clipboard, mark it

as HTML. This works to copy rendered HTML from

Firefox, paste it as raw HTML in Vim, select the HTML

in Vim and paste it in a rich edit box in Firefox.

You probably want to add this only temporarily,

possibly use BufEnter autocommands.

Only supported for GTK version 2 and later.

Only available with the +multi_byte feature.

clipboard-excludeLINK

exclude:{pattern}

Defines a pattern that is matched against the name of

the terminal 'term'. If there is a match, no

connection will be made to the X server. This is

useful in this situation:

- Running Vim in a console.

- $DISPLAY is set to start applications on another

display.

- You do not want to connect to the X server in the

console, but do want this in a terminal emulator.

To never connect to the X server use:

exclude:.*

This has the same effect as using the -X argument.

Note that when there is no connection to the X server

the window title won't be restored and the clipboard

cannot be accessed.

The value of 'magic' is ignored, {pattern} is

interpreted as if 'magic' was on.

The rest of the option value will be used for

{pattern}, this must be the last entry.

'cmdheight' 'ch'LINK

'cmdheight' 'ch' number (default 1)

global

{not in Vi}

Number of screen lines to use for the command-line. Helps avoiding

hit-enter prompts.

The value of this option is stored with the tab page, so that each tab

page can have a different value.

'cmdwinheight' 'cwh'LINK

'cmdwinheight' 'cwh' number (default 7)

global

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +vertsplit

feature}

Number of screen lines to use for the command-line window. cmdwin

'colorcolumn' 'cc'LINK

'colorcolumn' 'cc' string (default "")

local to window

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +syntax

feature}

'colorcolumn' is a comma separated list of screen columns that are

highlighted with ColorColumn hl-ColorColumn. Useful to align

text. Will make screen redrawing slower.

The screen column can be an absolute number, or a number preceded with

'+' or '-', which is added to or subtracted from 'textwidth'.

:set cc=+1 " highlight column after 'textwidth'

:set cc=+1,+2,+3 " highlight three columns after 'textwidth'

:hi ColorColumn ctermbg=lightgrey guibg=lightgrey

When 'textwidth' is zero then the items with '-' and '+' are not used.

A maximum of 256 columns are highlighted.

'columns' 'co' E594LINK

'columns' 'co' number (default 80 or terminal width)

global

{not in Vi}

Number of columns of the screen. Normally this is set by the terminal

initialization and does not have to be set by hand. Also see

posix-screen-size.

When Vim is running in the GUI or in a resizable window, setting this

option will cause the window size to be changed. When you only want

to use the size for the GUI, put the command in your gvimrc file.

When you set this option and Vim is unable to change the physical

number of columns of the display, the display may be messed up. For

the GUI it is always possible and Vim limits the number of columns to

what fits on the screen. You can use this command to get the widest

window possible:

:set columns=9999

Minimum value is 12, maximum value is 10000.

'comments' 'com' E524 E525LINK

'comments' 'com' string (default

"s1:/*,mb:*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,:XCOMM,n:>,fb:-")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +comments

feature}

A comma separated list of strings that can start a comment line. See

format-comments. See option-backslash about using backslashes to

insert a space.

'commentstring' 'cms' E537LINK

'commentstring' 'cms' string (default "/*%s*/")

local to buffer

{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the +folding

feature}

A template for a comment. The "%s" in the value is replaced with the

comment text. Currently only used to add markers for folding, see

fold-marker.

'compatible' 'cp' 'nocompatible' 'nocp'LINK

'compatible' 'cp' boolean (default on, off when a vimrc or gvimrc

file is found)

global

{not in Vi}

This option has the effect of making Vim either more Vi-compatible, or

make Vim behave in a more useful way.

This is a special kind of option, because when it's set or reset,

other options are also changed as a side effect. CAREFUL: Setting or

resetting this option can have a lot of unexpected effects: Mappings

are interpreted in another way, undo behaves differently, etc. If you

set this option in your vimrc file, you should probably put it at the

very start.

By default this option is on and the Vi defaults are used for the

options. This default was chosen for those people who want to use Vim

just like Vi, and don't even (want to) know about the 'compatible'

option.

When a vimrc or gvimrc file is found while Vim is starting up,

this option is switched off, and all options that have not been

modified will be set to the Vim defaults. Effectively, this means

that when a vimrc or gvimrc file exists, Vim will use the Vim

defaults, otherwise it will use the Vi defaults. (Note: This doesn't

happen for the system-wide vimrc or gvimrc file, nor for a file given

with the -u argument). Also see compatible-default and

posix-compliance.

You can also set this option with the "-C" argument, and reset it with

"-N". See -C and -N.

Switching this option off makes the Vim defaults be used for options

that have a different Vi and Vim default value. See the options

marked with a '+' below. Other options are not modified.

At the moment this option is set, several other options will be set

or reset to make Vim as Vi-compatible as possible. See the table

below. This can be used if you want to revert to Vi compatible

editing.